


The Haimaru Incentive

by EternalSurvivor



Series: Naruto Rare Pairs [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, First Love, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Naruto Rare Pair Bingo 2019, Ninken | Ninja Dogs, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship, Prompt: Itachi, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Young Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 10:27:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19990615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EternalSurvivor/pseuds/EternalSurvivor
Summary: Twelve-year-old ANBU Itachi Uchiha returns from a mission to find a litter of puppies abandoned in a dumbster.(Or how Hana Inuzuka got the Three Haimaru Brothers as her canine partners.)





	The Haimaru Incentive

**Author's Note:**

> This is officially the fluffiest thing I've ever written! ItachiHana was my first Naruto "crack" pair from all the way back in 2005-2006 when I just started shipping anime characters. Such nostalgic feelings~ <3 This was written for the Naruto Rare Pair Bingo over on Tumblr.
> 
> My beta for this one-shot was the wonderful Leo Otherlands. Please check [out his amazing work](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeoOtherLands/works) here.
> 
> Naruto Rare Pair Bingo Prompt: Itachi

The whimpers were quiet enough to be missed by anyone with a lesser sense of hearing. Whether it was a miracle or just dumb luck, ANBU Neko heard. He found himself standing before a dumpster wedged into a narrow space behind Yakiniku Q. His head tilted, straining to locate the noise through the haze of chakra-exhaustion. Hound-taichou was in no better shape when they parted ways at the gate.

Ah, there it was again.

Ignoring the heavy fatigue weighing down his limbs, Neko pushed the lid up and leaned into the dumpster. The whimpers were buried deep and muffled. He dug through discarded bags and broken items until his fingers trembled. His stomach throbbed, warm and sticky beneath the field dressing.  _ Must have pulled the stitches. _ He made a mental note to swing by the hospital before heading home. His little brother always worried when he came back hurt.

A rustle and a whine drew his attention to a black garbage bag. He ripped it open as his vision began to swim. A sickening crunch made his blood run cold. Puppies and glass. He unzipped his grey flak jacket down to his naval. With trembling hands, he drew the tiny bodies carefully from their intended grave.

One.

Two.

Three.

Tiny, brown fluffballs curled against his gloved hands, whining and seeking with wet noses. “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.” Neko pulled his mask up and Itachi Uchiha stared down at the little lives he held so carefully. Those same hands killed only scant hours ago. Large eyes looked up at him, trusting and vulnerable. His gloves smudged dark from the puppies’ blood. They were hurt, he needed to get them help. “I’ll take care of you, don’t worry.”

As carefully as he could, Itachi tucked the little pups inside his flak jacket and zipped it up to keep them warm. Late October brought cold nights. His breath left a cloud with each exhale. His arms crossed over his torso, holding the puppies securely as they pawed and nosed at his chest.

He jumped atop the dumpster and then up to the roof of Yakiniku Q. The sun broke above the horizon as he made his way across Konoha. Each leap brought startled yips from inside his flak jacket. “Hang on, it’s just a little farther.” He rubbed a hand over the lump in his vest to comfort himself as much as the puppies. “We’re almost there.”

The Inuzuka Compound was much smaller than the Uchiha District. Itachi always thought it more akin to the Nara lands, with sprawling forests for the deer they so painstakingly raised. Only the Inuzuka held acres of grasslands used to train their loyal, four-legged companions. It was from his time as a genin, working the lands on D-rank missions, that he knew of the Inuzuka’s veterinarian clinic. There was usually someone there, even at odd hours.

Itachi landed on the roof and jumped down into the fenced-off backyard. Stray dog toys and bones littered the grass. The puppies whined inside his flak jacket. He peeked inside to make sure they were okay. One, two, three sets of eyes dark stared back at him. “You’re okay, the scary jumping is all done.”

Cradling the little bodies with one arm, Itachi knock on the backdoor. He rocked on the balls of his feet as he waited, fighting the growing fatigue down with a sheer force of will. Their mission went a month over schedule and they ran out of ration bars last week. A shinobi, even an ANBU class one, could only persist on soldier pills and adrenaline for so long. After a few minutes of no response and puppy whimpering, Itachi knocked again.

“Coming!! I’m coming!!” A crash from inside had him reflectively step back, his free hand hovering over his weapon holster. The back door swung open to a frazzled looking chunin around his age.

“...Hana-san?”

“Holy shit, Itachi?! Is that you?”

The two stared at each other for a moment. Hana Inuzuka was in his class at the Academy before he graduated. Last he heard, she made genin the same year he was promoted to chunin. “I’m sorry to have awoken you so early, Hana-san.” The pristine stiffness to her flak jacket gave away its lack of use. She was, most likely, newly promoted to chunin rank from the last batch of exams. Itachi bowed shallowly, not wishing to jostle the puppies in his vest. 

“I wasn’t sleeping.” The kunoichi protested with a confident nature that belied the bleary look in her eyes. She took in his haggard form in one sweeping glance, brows knitting together in confusion until one of the puppies yipped.

The change was immediate. Her back straightened, eyes focused and determined. She stepped aside, motioning for him to come in. “This way, Itachi.” Hana led him through several back rooms sectioned off with curtains. “Please mind the noise level. Several patients are recovering from surgery.” Ninken snoring, little growls and yips rumbled from behind the privacy dividers. Sounded like pleasant dreams, Itachi was _ almost  _ jealous.

Almost.

Getting the pups looked after came first.

It was close to four years since he last stepped foot in one of the clinic’s examination rooms, but they looked relatively the same. Black pawprints trailed in a zigzag pattern across the tan walls, like ninken with dirty feet chakra-infused themselves to the plaster. Hana left the door ajar and pulled on a pair of disposable, latex gloves. She laid soft linen across the exam table. “Let me see what you found, Itachi.” 

She gently tugged his flak jacket’s zipper down enough to lift a puppy from inside. “Oh no, that glass is quite deep.” She held one up to the light, checking the overall appearance and gender. Brown, baby fuzz blended with white across the muzzle and stomach. Tiny ears flopped forward, little tail curling slightly at the tip. “Siberian husky by the looks of it, male, about five weeks old.” With gentle hands, Hana arranged the wibbling fluffballs onto the examination table together. Using a stethoscope, she checked their heartbeats and felt along the little bodies for more pressing injuries. “Kuromaru, can I have your help please?” She called out the door.

A massive wolfdog nosed his way through the door and brushed against Hana’s side. She stood only a few inches taller than him. “What do you have, Hana?” He nosed one of the puppies, drawing another wibble from the tiny creature. “They smell of garbage.”

“Itachi, this is my mother’s partner Kuromaru. He trains me when Mama’s on missions.”

"We met previous, though it has been a while." Itachi inclined his head respectfully to the ninken. It was surreal to see him away from Tsume Inuzuka.

Kuromaru returned the gesture. "Seems you've been busy the last few years, Pup. You never struck me as the anonymous shadows type."

"We all do what we must for the sake of Konoha."

Hana opened a drawer as they spoke and withdrew several tweezers in different sizes. She lined them up on the exam table along with a tray, bandages, suture-sized needles, medical thread, and disinfectant. “Please tell us what you can about them.”

“I was returning from a mission. Their whining caught my attention.” Itachi clenched his hands to keep the slight tremble in his arms from becoming noticeable. The exhaustion, the chakra-depletion, caught up to him the more he tried to push it down. Keeping focused was becoming more difficult. “I found them in a dumpster by Yakiniku Q. They were tied inside a bag with broken glass. I brought them here immediately.”

Hana made a little tut noise in the back of her throat. Holding one pup gently, she reached for a medium-sized set of tweezers. “Have a seat on the bench there, Itachi, this is going to take a while.” She nudged Kuromaru with her foot. “Will you please get him a juice box and banana from the staff room? A vitamin boost will help his chakra-exhaustion.”

Itachi sat down, his face perfectly schooled to hide his mild surprise. She picked up on the state of his chakra levels so quickly, though with that nose and training, he should have expected. Veterinarian or not, she was a medical-nin at her core.

“Of course.” Kuromaru nuzzled Hana’s shoulder on his way past.

“Kuromaru oversees my training when Mama is preoccupied with clan duties. He’s very knowledgeable, I appreciate his expertise.” Hana rubbed the first pup’s back. “Okay darling, time to get you looked after. I apologize in advance, but this will hurt a bit.” With the tweezers held between her thumb and first two fingers, she skillfully, and as gently as she could, began to pull shards of glass from the baby animal.

Pained yelps and whines rang through the otherwise quiet examination room. Hana’s soft reassurances did little to soothe the distraught puppy. She did what she could for him as she worked, wiping away blood and stroking little paws. She stitched up a few of the deeper lacerations, disinfected and bound the wounds with a special dressing, then used a bit of healing chakra on the deeper wounds.

Kuromaru returned with the juice box, two bananas, a bottle of multivitamins, and an apple just as she finished with the first fuzzball. “Here, Pup.” The wolfdog dangled a bag, between his teeth, for Itachi to take. “Make sure to eat it all.”

“Thank you, it’s very much appreciated.” Itachi popped several vitamin supplements into his mouth and swallowed with a drink from the juice box. Orange flavoured -not exactly his favourite, but after the mission, it tasted like a small piece of heaven.

“It’s a medic’s job to take care of friends.” A high-pitched yelp came from the second pup when Hana pulled a large glass chunk from his hindleg. Kuromaru nosed the puppies, rumbling soft reassurances as the newly promoted chunin patiently removed glass shards.

Itachi bit into the apple, forcing himself to chew through the bone-deep exhaustion. “We haven’t spoken in almost five years.”

Hana hummed in silent retrospect as she bandaged the second puppy. “I never thought distance negated friendship.” She tucked the pup into a small basket next to the first, leaving them for Kuromaru to lick and fuss over.

Silence fell over them then, leaving the Uchiha to mull over her words. Hana diligently worked on the last puppy, Kuromaru fussed over the first two, and Itachi finished the apple.  _ What an odd thing to say. _ He didn’t have many friends, definitely not in his own age bracket. Even his best friend, Shisui, was almost five years his senior. For Hana Inuzaku to consider them friends after so long was foolhardy and naive. What did they know of each other? Neither were the little children that sat next to each other in Daikoku-sensei’s class any longer.

The puppy yowled and yipped as the veterinarian-in-training finished removing the glass shards. “There, all better, darling.” She disinfected the cuts, petting the tiny head affectionately. “You’ll be with your brothers soon.” Hana healed a few of the deeper cuts. He wibbled when she settled him into the basket with his brothers. “Lucky boys you are.” She cooed and pet their little backs. “They’re malnourished, but besides that and the glass, they seem to be okay.”

Itachi shoved the rest of the banana into his mouth, relief flooding tension from his aching body. The puppies would be okay. “Thank you, Hana-san.”

The chunin just smiled. “As I said, it’s my job to look after friends.”

“I’ll prepare formula for the pups.” Kuromaru butted his head against Itachi’s shoulder and licked Hana’s cheek. “Take care of your…friend.” With a final nuzzle to the puppies, the massive wolfdog strolled from the room.

Hana stroked a hand down one fuzzy back. “Do you want me to keep pretending you aren’t wounded, Itachi?” Her smile curved up at the edges, knowing and devilish.

Itachi’s face remained neutral. Of course, she knew, the Inuzuka had the keenest noises in all of Konohagakure. He rubbed a finger across one tiny paw, shifting to sit when the examination room suddenly began to dip and tilt. Chakra-depletion often left him lightheaded and the wound wasn't helping. "No, please take a look." After a minute, he unzipped his flack jacket and pulled up his shirt. A swathe of bandages haphazardly wrapped around his abdomen. Spots of crimson dotted through the white linens. “A fuma-shuriken struck me.”

Hana washed her hands and changed her gloves. Returning to his side, she cut off the old bandages and peeled them away. The cut stretched across his lower abdomen, about an inch below his navel. Hound-taichou stitched it closed, but neither of them used healing jutsu. Hana pressed lightly on the wound, the skin hot and inflamed beneath her fingers. “There’s an infection setting in, I’ll need to use chakra to heal it.” Her hands glowed green, the chakra slightly darker and more jagged around the edges than most medical. “I’m still learning Shosen Jutsu, so this might hurt.”

Hana brushed both palms over his skin, then pushing her chakra into the wound. Itachi drew in a sharp breath, his eyes sliding shut. His muscles flexed beneath the unfamiliar, burning invasion. He could feel Hana’s chakra forcefully knitting the lacerated muscles back together from the inside out. She lacked the finesse of more experienced medical-nin, but that would come with practice and time. She was effective. That’s all he needed from a healer.

“Thank you, Hana-san.” He tugged his shirt back down when she finished and zipped up his flak jacket.

“I already told you that’s what friends are for.” Hana rested her forearms on her knees, head cocked to the side like the dogs her clan loved so much. “You’re lucky the fuma-shuriken didn’t cut your intestines.”

“I know, you have my gratitude.” Itachi pet one of the pups when they started whining again. The puppy gnawed on his gloved fingertip hungrily. Good, a returning appetite was excellent news.

Hana hummed again, those dark eyes a little too knowing for his comfort. Yes, she’d always had an unnatural way of seeing past his mask. Looking underneath the underneath as Hound-taichou often said. “I can still do that trick you showed me.”

“What trick?” Itachi’s eyes shifted from the puppies to the older girl at his side.

The veterinarian-in-training grinned wolfishly. She showed him her open hand palm up, turned it around and back with three kunai held between her fingers. She flicked them into the air. The first struck the second and sent it flying at a sharp angle. It stuck through the finger hole of the third and lodged into the wall with the third kunai dangling loosely from the second. “That trick.”

Itachi’s eyes widened slightly. Her execution was flawless, almost like second nature. A long-buried memory roared to the surface of his mind. Training Ground 03 littered in kunai, rain, a wet dog, and a very frustrated Hana Inuzuka. “I only showed you that once.”

“What can I say? It pissed me off you used kunai so easily. Then you went and graduated a month later.” Hana lifted the basket of puppies up as she stood. She nudged Itachi with her hip. “Come on, we’ll get them settled for the night.”

They found Kuromaru in back, fluffing a plush dog bed with his nose. Hana sat the puppies' basket beside him with a soft laugh. “I kind of wondered if this is what you'd decide.” She scratched the wolfdog behind the ear affectionately. Kuromaru shot her a look but nuzzled the three wibbling puppies over to the food bowls he’d set up. With a bit of encouragement, they started lapping the formula he prepared.

“What’s going to happen to them?” The Uchiha found himself asking.

“Oh? You got attached to them quickly, Itachi.” Hana sat down cross-legged by the bed, watching her mother’s partner with the puppies. “What do you think, Kuromaru?”

“I suppose with the proper training they would do.” The massive wolfdog rumbled deep in his throat and licked a puppy’s head. “Are you sure about this Hana?”

“Medics don’t usually have a summon, and clan members never pick a partner past genin level. I never planned to sign a contract, so this is fine.” She shrugged, clearly not deterred in whatever decision she'd made. “Who can say no to those faces anyway?”

“Do you plan to take all three as your partners?” Tension eased from Itachi’s shoulders. Hana kept surprising him.

“Of course!” She flopped down on her belly to scratch each little chin. The pups yipped, curly tails wagging at the attention. “I’ve already named them - Hai, Ma, and Ru.” She poked tiny noses in turn to emphasize each name. “The three Haimaru brothers! It’s perfect.” She clapped her hands together. “And, if I’m not mistaken, Kuromaru is going to foster them.” Hana scratched deep into the wolfdog’s fur. “You big softy~”

Kuromaru cleared his throat and pulled away from Hana’s affection in embarrassment. “Yes, well, they’ll need a guardian besides you.” He waved the two preteens away with a flick of his paw. “Now let me get them settled.”

After Hana checked the puppies over once more and they both got a final cuddle, Hana walked Itachi to the back door. The sun was high in the sky by then, brightening the backyard and compound beyond. Hana looked him over, then shrugged off her flak jacket. “Here, wear mine. You can’t go walking across Konoha in full ANBU gear and you’re too chakra-exhausted to shunshin home.” Hana was ten months older than him, their heights and body sizes almost identical.

“Thank you, Hana-san.” She didn’t try to make him stay. For that, Itachi was forever grateful. Itachi changed his flak jacket for Hana’s standard green one. With her help, his ANBU mask, black gloves and grey flak jacket were tucked away in a storage scroll. “You’ve been too kind.”

“ANBU doesn’t suit you, Itachi. You’re too gentle. It’s weighing heavily on your soul.” She sighed, resolute despite her reservations. “...But, I’m sure you have your reasons for doing what you do.”

When he didn’t answer, she just reached for his hand and turned it palm up between her own. “I was so jealous of you when we were kids. Everything seemed to come to you easily. I worked my butt off for the slightest improvement. It was so frustrating.” She squeezed his hand tightly. “I finally realized how wrong I was when I saw your hands. They were always bandaged, covered in cuts or burns." She smiled at him, bright but soft, like a warm hearth welcoming him home. "I still admire these hands.”

Colour slowly crept up his cheeks, tinting his skin rosy. “...Hana-san.”

“I couldn’t see you as a rival since I couldn’t offer anything in return. So I decided to see you as my friend instead.” Hana grinned, slowly releasing his hand. She leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek. “You haven’t changed, Itachi, I’m glad. I like you just the way you are.”

How was he to respond to a confession like that?! “I-I should be going.”

“Yeah, you better.” She stepped away, hands clasped behind her back. “Thanks for bringing the puppies here, I’ll take good care of them.”

“I know, Hana-san.”

“Make sure you stop by again soon. I’m going to need my flak jacket back.”

Despite the fatigue clawing at his insides, Itachi smiled gently. "I'll make sure you get it."

Maybe dropping by again soon wasn’t such a bad idea.


End file.
